When in need of a little inspiration, writers and artists have always taken to the streets. Look closely enough and the whole of human life is there, our hopes, fears, fetishes and aspirations expressed in architecture, machinery, fashions, street furniture and advertising. And in the people themselves, rich, poor, happy, sad and the living dead. Oh, yes, the streets are paved with more than chewing gum.

In this exhibition we’ve chosen artists who study the urban cityscape. Artists like Adrian Gatie, whose moving black and white photographs of the residents of Greater Manchester and Rochdale are as iconic in their own way as a Robert Doisneau print of 1950s Paris. By contrast, Harry Dillons colour photographs of US cityscapes focus on the anonymity and vastness of the urban sprawl, while Patricia Clements oil paintings romanticize the streets of New York through the wide-eyes of a visitor.